FAI monitoring Israeli situation

KdjaCL

The Football Association of Ireland has said it is monitoring the security situation in Israel ahead of the World Cup qualifier in Tel Aviv on 26 March.

A suicide bomb in Tel Aviv on Friday has increased fears about the crucial Group Four game.

FAI officials will meet the Israeli ambassador in Dublin on Tuesday to discuss arrangements for the game.

The Republic of Ireland's governing body has also been in contact with the Irish Foreign Ministry in recent days.

"We will await the assessments from the Embassy, the Department and FIFA before commenting further," said an FAI statement.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/4304435.stm

if its moved where they do usually play their away from home games?

kdjac

Big Ears

Im not sure , but I think Cyprus .

[Jackass]

I don't think the venue will have a significant bearing on the match, if anything, it may unsettle the israel side slightly, but not much. I doubt it'll be moved tbh. Even if the FAI request it. (in the event it was, i would imagine it would be cyprus alright) I just hope we get the right result on the pitch...the Israel games are so crucial at this point, 2 wins, and i can't see us not topping the group.

eirebhoy

DubGuy22 wrote:

I don't think the venue will have a significant bearing on the match

Ireland have not beaten a team of Israel's calibre or better (arguably) in an away competitive in almost 20 years. It will make a huge difference if the game is played on Neutral ground as the majority of fans would be ours.

Pigman II

I can't see the game going ahead in a neutral venue. If things aren't sorted out then possibly the game could be postponed but there's no way UEFA will entertain the notion of playing it in a neutral venue now that they've already played 2 of their 5 home games. Just shows you that Israel should never have been given their home status back (or for that matter be allowed to compete inside the UEFA federation) in the first place.

eirebhoy

In fairness, there's just as much chance of a bomb going off in Tel Aviv when we play there as there would have been in Paris. I actually think there was a bomb in Paris the night before our match.

[Jackass]

eirebhoy wrote:

Ireland have not beaten a team of Israel's calibre or better (arguably) in an away competitive in almost 20 years. It will make a huge difference if the game is played on Neutral ground as the majority of fans would be ours.

It would still be at "home" game for Israel, and would have absolutely no bearing on ticket allocation, 80 odd percent would still go to israel FA.

It was announced that after a meeting with the israeli ambassador to Ireland, the FAI's security concerns have been satisfied, however, fifa will continue to monitor the situation. :Source:

Also in their last qualifying campaign, Israel played their "home" games in Turkey and Italy. :Source:

PHB

there is roughly the same chance of a bombing going off now in Israel, as there is in Dublin. Full stop.
This is one of the safest times in all of Israeli history

d22ontour

Pigman II
[Just shows you that Israel should never have been given their home status back (or for that matter be allowed to compete inside the UEFA federation) in the first place.]

What football federation should they play in and who would play them ?When Israel are mentioned politics are never too far away,there was nothing wrong with uefa lettting them in as every country should have a right to play football.

DubGuy22
[It would still be at "home" game for Israel, and would have absolutely no bearing on ticket allocation, 80 odd percent would still go to israel FA.]

I think israel don't fill the stadium when they play in Cyprus so if it was moved it might be to our advantage.

Pigman II

d22ontour wrote:

Pigman II
What football federation should they play in and who would play them ?When Israel are mentioned politics are never too far away,there was nothing wrong with uefa lettting them in as every country should have a right to play football.

That's their own TS. Should every country illegially occupying territory now just be dumped off into another federation because their neighbours refuse (rightly imho) to play them?

If so where should USA play?

eirebhoy

DubGuy22 wrote:

It would still be at "home" game for Israel, and would have absolutely no bearing on ticket allocation, 80 odd percent would still go to israel FA.

Their highest attendance in the last campaign was against France in Italy, 2,500. The majority of the fans were most likely French and Italian. Certainly be a lot different than another Iran type atmosphere and can only give us a huge advantage.

Anyway, with the match so close its either going to be played in Tel Aviv or called off (maybe for a later date somewhere else).

PHB

Because FIFA don't have the balls to say to the rest of the middle east, if you do not want to play them, then you cannot play.
Thus because they cannot play against their neighbours, they have to play somewhere, and Europe is the logical step.

Whethere or not you agree with the rest of the middle east countries is utterly irrelevant.

This has been totally blown out of proportions(he he), there is little chance of a bomb attack, no more so than there is in dublin, and there is no reason for this heightened stance by teh FAI, its just causing a fuss for no reason.

Dont be at yourself

PHB wrote:

This is one of the safest times in all of Israeli history

Well that puts my mind at ease.

kirn

i'd say the game will go ahead, and will be very well protected.

sadly the main thing will be the lack of travelling support.
ah well, the most important thing is the result.
a win could be our most important result in the group.

eirebhoy

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Well that puts my mind at ease.

I can't find figures for Tel Aviv but since 2000 an average of about 230 people have been killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism in Israel. That includes terrorists killed by soldiers etc. Imagine how low that figure is for Tel Aviv. Ireland has an average of around 380 road deaths since 2000.

BTW, Tel Aviv has calmed down a lot since 2000 so you'd have a far less chance of being involved in a terrorist attack now.

Here's a list of all the killings:
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/terrisrael.html

very few in Tel Aviv.

So you have about 6 times (bit of a guess, I'm not going counting the death's in Tel Aviv from that list) more of a chance of being killed on our Irish roads than you do by a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.